


Unseen

by grlcreature



Category: Greek Mythology, Greek and Roman Mythology, Hades/Persephone - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Hades - Freeform, Modern rendition, My First Work, Persephone - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 19:29:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1561454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grlcreature/pseuds/grlcreature
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The pomegranate in his calloused hand bled the same shade of purple as the bruises surrounding the India ink seeping through the skin of his knuckles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unseen

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically the beta version of a story I've been toying with.

* * *

In Greek mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus, and the harvest-goddess, Demeter, and queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead.

* * *

The narrow winding street was dimly lit, lined with lanterns and people with bad intentions. On hard, white plastic chairs beneath a flickering light, hunched men smoked from a hookah in turns, their raucous laughter piercing the air. Loud and obnoxious tourists (obviously deviating from their guide books suggestions) crooned over the protective _nazar_ amulets embedded in the concrete. Pale dirty walls were accompanied by an orange sky and a sense of foreboding. It was evening in Istanbul.

Paige had been on a study date when she saw him. Working on an essay (on the iconography of beautiful dead girls of revolutions) over lukewarm, watery coffee, she'd glanced up and noticed him under a cramped archway, leaning against a stone wall. Every few seconds, his face was washed with orange light as he dragged on a cigarette while feigning interest in the throngs of guileless tourists.

Mouth suddenly dry, Paige downed her espresso and hoped he couldn't see her flush under the cafe's florescent lighting. Her heart lurched painfully in her chest as she locked eyes almost imploringly with Xavier, her date. She had a sneaking suspicion as to why the figure had chosen now to apparate. He had seemed like the jealous type.

'I-', She faltered, her words turning to ashes in her mouth and on her tongue. 'I need to leave. I'm sorry. Really. It would never have worked out.' It wasn't a lie. She wasn't sure exactly what the dating protocol was when your "courtship" was a debt you owed to the lord of the underworld, but she figured there wasn't much room for negotiation.

Paige remembered dying- screeching tires, the sound of metal folding in on itself, the taste of grave in her mouth, the metallic smell of blood mingling with petrol fumes -but not as clearly as she remembered death.

* * *

Hades, the god of the underworld, fell in love with Persephone, but, knowing Demeter would never agree to the match, elected to abduct her. Bursting through a cleft in the Earth, he dragged Persephone back to the underworld.

* * *

_Paige stood in a cavern of pink-hued stone. Writhing waters of liquid smoke lapped at the grey sand beneath her feet. Coils of hair, slick wet with her own blood, clung to the gooseflesh of her neck._

_She was eighteen. Alone. Afraid. Dead. Her eyes stung. A broken sob was building in her raw throat. The sound of someone clearing their throat drew her attention to where a man stood, observing her._

_He appeared to be about twenty three, with dishevelled black hair, stubble and a prominent Adam's apple. His eyes were green with flecks of yellow; dried leaves floating in a chlorinated pool._

_He moved toward her slowly, taking calculated steps as if approaching a cornered animal. He removed his leather jacket as he walked, thrusting it to her tentatively when he reached her. Numb, she accepted it without question and forced her damp arms through the sleeves. His lingering body heat was searing against her dead flesh._

_It was then that he'd made his offer._

_'Your can have your life back. You can go to college, travel. You don't have to die. Not now. This,' he gestured around him, 'wasn't meant to happen to you. Yet.' His voice rang bitterly on the_ yet _, but was otherwise soothing when he spoke._

 _'Who_ are _you?' Paige asked, ignoring the ominous voice in the back of her mind that told her she didn't want to know._

 _'I am known by many names,' he answered, 'and countless euphemisms-but you may call me Aidas.'_ Aidas. The unseen. The ionic form of the name, used in epic poetry.

_'Aidas. Alright. And.. I don't have to die? I can go home? You can take me home?'_

_'Yes. On a condition.' The pomegranate in his calloused hand bled the same shade of purple as the bruises surrounding the India ink seeping through the skin of his knuckles._ Pomegranate. Fruit of the dead, sprung from the blood of Adonis.

_And so she'd made her deal with the devil and bitten into the fruit. The world fell apart around her. She'd seen the triumph in his eyes before it faded to black._

                                                                                                                          *****

A jarring light bore down from above Paige's head. Bright. Sterile. She lay on some kind of examination table. Someone had given her an injection, and removed her clothes. _Definitely not the underworld_ she'd decided, semi conscious. _Maybe aliens?_ Yes, she had heard about things like this. These creatures would not harm her, she remembered. All they wanted were her-

'Not on your life!' Paige sat upright, eyes flying open.

One of the creatures shrieked. The tag on his white coat read Dr. Graham. He looked remarkably human.

The fog began to lift. She had woken in a hospital room, not a UFO. She hated hospitals, but they were decidedly better than having aliens harvest her ovaries.

The doctors told her she shouldn't have survived, especially unscathed the way she did. Considering the angle and speed at which the other driver had hit her, it shouldn't have been possible. Furthermore, no one could figure out how she'd dragged herself a safe distance from the wreckage before it burst flame. She must have a guardian angel, they told her. At this, Paige gave a tight-lipped smile.

Upon her discharge from the hospital, a familiar leather jacket was given to her along with the clothes she had been found in.

That had been roughly a year ago.

* * *

Demeter, upon finding her daughter missing, neglected the Earth in her despair. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. Hades complied- but not before he tricked her into eating the seeds of a pomegranate. As partaking in the fruit of the realm of the dead bound you to it, Demeter was forced to return her daughter to Hades for three months of each year- one for each seed Persephone swallowed.

* * *

Inside of her apartment, Paige was trying to convince herself that the coffee was to blame for her shaking hands. She could hear the sounds of the cities nightlife through her open window. Muffled fragments of music from passing cars, the laughter of young couples. The crows.

She wondered if he had followed her, if he was outside, now. Waiting.  _He followed you back from the underworld_ , a disparaging voice in her head pointed out, _It wouldn't be out of the question to assume that he followed you around the corner to your apartment._

Paige had suspected he was watching her for some time. These suspicions had been confirmed at the most unlikely of places- a family carnival she'd happened upon two months after the accident.

Inside a gauzy fortune telling booth, the self-proclaimed _Psychic Extraordinaire_ had clasped her hand and gravely informed her that she was 'marked by Death'. She'd peered into an overlarge crystal ball before continuing on to grimly inquire whether Paige had come to discover her future, or to confirm what she already knew.

'Your fate has been determined by your past, child.' She'd said, rather sadly. 'There is no changing it now.'

Shuddering, Paige found herself focusing on the mundane to avoid thinking about the inevitable: _Who is going to water the plants while I'm gone? Oh God, I'm going to fall behind in my classes._

Paige hadn't lived in the apartment long enough to find a roommate who could help her. She briefly considered calling Xav before dismissing the idea. In the wake of her abrupt departure tonight, he might not be so eager to help.

Outside her window, the crows had fallen silent.

'You must be eager to return to me after all,' a caustic voice said into her ear. 'Though admittedly not in the way I had hoped.' Releasing something that could only be described as a _yelp_ , Paige pivoted around- knocking into the voice's owner in the process, he was so close.

Sinuous veins tracked down his tan arms and adjoined to large calloused hands. Hands that were currently clutching her emergency pack of cigarettes. He held them higher and made a face- which was hardly fair. She only smoked under circumstances of extreme stress, which this clearly was. Not to mention that she'd caught him with his own earlier- then again, it wasn't like they were going to kill him. It was too late for that.

Despite herself, Paige blushed, feeling like a small child being scolded. She didn't answer.

'Well?' his voice had softened.

'No.'

'No?'

'Yes- no.'

'You made a deal,' he reminded her. 'I'm sorry, but you ate the fruit. You don't exactly have a choice here.'

'I was _eighteen_ , I wasn't ready to die.'

Aidas lifted an eyebrow. 'And nineteen is better for you?'

She refused to show him how much his dark joke perturbed her.

'No. I was terrified. I was _dead_. I would have agreed to _anything_ if I thought it meant I could go home.' Her lip quivered. It wasn't fair. Because of something beyond her control, she was doomed to this half life- one foot in life, the other in death. Because of _what?_ A drunk driver? It wasn't fair.

'I explained it to you.', he sounded exasperated now. 'You agreed. It was _your_ choice to eat the pomegranate. I think it was a fair trade. _You got your life back_. In exchange for what? A few months of your time? How many other people do you think get that chance?' His voice was hard when he replied. 'I thought you understood.'

'This is too short notice' she tried, repeating back her earlier worries about her plants. 'How am I meant to find someone to water them?'

'You had a year,' he replied dryly. She had nothing to counter him with.

Paige slumped slightly, and sensing her resignation, Aidas visibly relaxed.

'It's not so bad', he said, stepping closer and placing a comforting hand on her arm. She let him.

'Really. You'll get used to it. I promise, you just have to spend a little time there. With me.' His gaze strayed to her computer desk, his expression becoming astonished when he noticed the faded leather jacket draped across the back of the swivel chair.

'You kept it?' he asked, striding towards it. He was grinning now.

Paige, once again, found herself trying to conceal her blush. He plucked it from the chair and walked back to her, wrapping it around her shoulders and pulling it- and her -close by the collar.

'Ready?' Her hesitation was fleeting this time. Paige nodded.

Safe in his iron grasp, she was plunged downwards through a gaping chasm of blackened earth. Dirt filled her mouth, stinging her eyes, burning her lungs. Cascading deeper down into the portal to hell that had manifested itself in her bedroom, it occurred to her that her floorboards had been torn apart. Her last conscious thought in the realm of the living was _My landlord is going to kill me._


End file.
